Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-11
LONDON BUSINESS.
THE ENGLISH METHOD SEEMS AN
TloUATED 70 An AMERICAN. i
Some Peculiarities in neutrality-suspicious.
Exercised in Opening New Accounts
A "crossed'' Checls-Oid Firms and
Their Numerous Branches.

n -CfOSscu, Cneck-O0 ElFmb anu
Their Numerous Branches.
To the American the methods of con-
Quoting business in London seem slow and
antiquated. There IS an evident desire on
tho part Of many large firms to make the
transaction Of bIlaintss difficult instead OF
easy. There Is an outer inquiry office, ait
which you must give your name to Q clerk,
who cften intimates by his looks that he
is comforting d favor by taking it; the
name is passed on to an inner Office and
you are probably told to take seat in
reception room until the principals are at
liberty to see yon. All this contrasts
strongly with the accessibility Of business
men in America.
The greatest caution is exerciccd in the
opening of new accounts. Before you can
buy goods you must first either be intro
duced by an old customer or establish
your responsibility and solvency. If you
step into large bank in London and put
your money on the counter and ask to buy
draft ON New York, Berlin or Paris you
will be told that they do not know you
and can only sell drafts to their regular
customers or to people introduced by
them, There is no question that the
money You offer Is not good, but they do
not Know ynns
was once, years ago, refused draft
in bank in which had o special deposit
of money at interest, and, notwithstand-
ing brought the clerk from the special
deposit department of the bank to youch
for my identity, the draft clerk told me:
"Ah, yes! you have d special deposit in
that department, but special deposits are
received from any one without introduce
ton, and really, since you have never
been introduced to the bank, you are still
in the position of stranger to us, and
we cannot sell you the draft
Another Banking custom that seems
strange to us is that open checks mot
ecrossed'9 are paid to strangers without
Identification. IL you have check pay
able to "John jones' or order, the bank
does not require that you be identified as
John Jones, but You present the check,
indorse your name John Jones OH the
3 back and receive the money in bills or gold.
But most checks are crossed and not
s'open checks, = and you cannot get the
payment of "crossed' check by present.
ing it personally at the bank, no matter
how much you may be identified TO
sscross' check You draw two parallel
lines across the face of it, and write be-
tween them either the name of the bank
with whom the person to whom the check
is payable intends to deposit it, or simply
the terminal woAls 81 Cost any check so
CROSSED" must be deposited in bank for
collection and presented by bank mes
senger for payment. This crossing of
checks thus forms an almost absolute
safeguard against payment to the wrong
persons. 1t might be adopted with adj
vantage in other countries.
WITH a DOZEN BRANCHES.
Some OF the London banks have de-
posits of 800, 600 and $50, 000, 900,
but this is the total of deposits of the main
bank in the 'sCity Of London of its
dozen or more of branches in s:larper
London, Z and its thirty or forty country
branches, SO that to compare the deposits
of the largest London banksBwith those OF
the largest New York banks would hardly
be fair, unless You added to the deposits
of the New York banks the deposits OF
all their correspondent banks.
The principal of subsidiary branches is
carried through many other businesses.
Some Of the clothing and furnishing
houses, the grocers and provision dealers,
tea merchants, fruit stores, dyers and
cleaners, restaurants, booksellers and sta
TONERS have from six to twenty branch
establishments. Oftentimes you find two
or three shops on the same street belong
ing to the same firm. 1t is said that a
shop on any Of the main thoroughfares in
London can afford to cheat every GUS
toner, because the crowd sof strangers
passing the door will continue to furnish
new victims year after year. 1t may be
that experience proves that when the
number Of people passing is SO great that
the opening Of one Or two new shops in
the same street by the same firm does not
affect the business of the old house. But
many old firms cling to the old and often